System and method to manage speaker notes in a computer implemented slide show

ABSTRACT

A system and method for managing speaker notes in a slide presentation is disclosed. Preferably, the invention operates in a computer implemented slide presentation product. Particularly, a system for creating a plurality of speaker notes files to be used in support of a slide presentation comprises means for creating a first speaker notes file including a first speaker notes instance to be used in support of one slide of the slide presentation and means for creating at least a second speaker notes file including a second speaker notes instance. Links are created between the slide presentation and the at least second speaker notes file to allow the at least second speaker notes instance to be used in support of the one slide.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to slide show programs, and moreparticularly to a system and method to improve the management of speakernotes for such programs.

2. Related Art

Slide show programs have been developed to help a user in creating,editing, developing and managing slide presentations on a computer.Generally, a slide show contains several electronic slides that displayinformation to an audience. Each slide may be presented as a screen or apage output. Moreover, each slide show may contain one or more objects,such as text, graphical images, animation or sound. A slide may alsoinclude text usually defined as “speaker notes,” developed by or for thespeaker in order to give written support during the presentation.

To initiate a presentation, a user calls the “slide show” functionalityto sequentially display the slides contained in the presentation on acomputer display or to project it on any other surface. During thisoperation, the user controls the progress of the presentation byinvoking a command to “go to the next slide” and may comment on eachcurrent slide, having the respective text of the speaker notes availablefor support.

Typically, a speaker uses the same slide presentation for a specificaudience, using speaker notes only for his personal purposes andproviding to participants a set of electronic slides without thosespeaker notes.

It may also be convenient to have one slide presentation shared betweendifferent speakers not having the same native language and thus to havea set of the same speaker notes in different languages.

In present products, a user has to manually manage speaker notes, andwhen needed, to manually modify the speaker notes associated with eachslide of a presentation. The user has to save multiple versions of theslide presentation, and has to edit the speaker notes of a specificslide in each version and modify or remove text, or translate it asrequired.

The above manual processing presents important drawbacks. The maindrawback is that the manual action is performed in a repetitive mannerand thus is open to human errors, such as keeping undesirable speakernotes, for example. Another drawback is that the author of thepresentation file must manually manage several versions of the samepresentation, and the size of the basic presentation file is multipliedby the number of versions on his computer hard disk.

No solution exists to automatically manage a set of speaker notesrelated to a single slide presentation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, one object of the invention is to achieve a method and toprovide a system for managing in an efficient way a plurality of speakernotes files to be linked to one slide presentation.

Preferably, the invention operates in a computer implemented slidepresentation product. Particularly, a system for creating a plurality ofspeaker notes files to be used in support of a slide presentationcomprises means for creating a first speaker notes file including afirst speaker notes instance to be used in support of one slide of theslide presentation and means for creating at least a second speakernotes file including a second speaker notes instance. Links are createdbetween the slide presentation and the at least second speaker notesfile to allow the at least second speaker notes instance to be used insupport of the one slide.

More generally, a system for managing speaker notes files of a slidepresentation program is proposed and comprises:

-   a) a computer having a slide presentation program executing thereon;-   b) a slide presentation created with the slide presentation program,    the slide presentation comprising at least one slide and a speaker    notes instance created under control of the slide presentation    program and to be used in support of the at least one slide; and-   c) computer readable program means executable by the computer for    performing actions, including:-   (i) creating speaker notes files, each speaker notes file including    at least one speaker notes instance to be used in support of the at    least one slide; and-   (ii) linking the at least one speaker notes instance of each speaker    notes file to the at least one slide.

In a commercial form, the computer readable program means is embodied ona program storage device that is readable by a computer machine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the inventionwill be better understood by reading the following more particulardescription of the invention in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings wherein:

FIG. 1-a is a general conceptual view of the system of the presentinvention.

FIG. 1-b is a detailed view of a set of speaker notes files linked to aslide presentation.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the main steps to create a slide presentationalong with a speaker notes file as defined by the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the main steps to modify a speaker notes filewithin a slide presentation as defined by the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the main steps to use the speaker notesmanager to link a slide presentation file to a set of speaker notesfiles as defined by the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a pictorial representation of the speaker notes manager mainwindow in a preferred embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the main steps to save a slide presentationfile without speaker notes files as defined by the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A system according to the invention is illustrated in FIG. 1-a. System100 comprises a slide presentation component 102, a plurality of speakernotes components 106, and a speaker notes manager component 108. Speakernotes component 106 may comprise one 104 or a plurality (104-1 to 104-n)of speaker notes files. The speaker notes manager 108 operates tomaintain a file link between one speaker notes file 104 and the slidepresentation component 102 as illustrated with arrow 112. Moreover,speaker notes manager 108 also operates to maintain a bundle link 110between the slide presentation component 102 and a plurality of thespeaker notes files grouped in a speaker notes component 106.

Each component of system 100 is now detailed, and firstly it is to benoted that the slide presentation component 102 may be a slidepresentation created and/or modified and/or displayed by/with a slidepresentation product, such as the well-known PowerPoint from Microsoft,Freelance from Lotus Corporation, or StarOffice from Sun.

The speaker notes manager 108 is a routine which allows the globalmanagement of a speaker notes file 104, and maintains dynamically thefile link 112 between the slide presentation component 102 and thespeaker notes file 104. It is to be appreciated that the speaker notesfile 104 is created via a speaker notes function generally provided bythe slide presentation program currently used.

The speaker notes manager 108 routine also allows the management of aplurality of speaker notes components 106-i each of which groups aplurality of speaker notes files 104-i, and thereby also maintainsdynamically a bundle link 110 between the slide presentation component102 and the bundle of speaker notes files.

Finally, the speaker notes manager 108 routine also allows themanagement of slide-by-slide links 114, between each slide of the slidepresentation component 102 and the corresponding speaker notes instanceof a speaker notes file 104-i.

A more detailed view of these links is shown on FIG. 1-b.

The skilled person will easily appreciate that a plurality and a varietyof functions may be performed via the speaker notes manager 108. Forexample, file link 112 may be changed from one speaker notes instance104-i of speaker notes file 104 to another instance 104-j as it will bemore detailed later with reference to FIG. 4. Another example is thatbundle link 110 may be changed from one instance 106-i of speaker notescomponent 106 to another instance 106-j or may be deleted as it will bemore detailed later with reference to FIG. 6.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the main steps to create a slide presentationalong with speaker notes as defined by the present invention isdescribed.

The process starts on step 202 with the creation of a slidepresentation. Next step 204 allows the creation of the first slide ofthe presentation. While it is not deeply described, it is to beappreciated that the creation may be performed using common slidepresentation programs as already mentioned. On next step 206, theprocess allows the user to access and create a speaker notes instancerelated to the previously created slide.

Next step 208 allows the user either to declare the speaker notesinstance internally into the presentation or to create an external setof speaker notes files to be linked to the presentation. If the userselects to have the speaker notes instance in the presentation (branchYes), then the speaker notes instance is stored into the slidepresentation as part of the slide presentation menu on step 210, and thepresentation is saved on step 220. On a next step 222, the user is askedfor the creation of a new slide. If the answer is Yes the process goesback to step 204 otherwise the process ends.

If on step 208 the user selects to create the speaker notes instance asan external file (branch No), the process goes to step 212, where it ischecked if it is a first slide creation or not. If the speaker notesinstance previously created is the first external speaker notes (branchYes), then the process creates on step 214 a bundle of speaker notesfiles in a repository of the computer system. If it is not the firstcreated one (branch No), the process then creates a new external file onstep 216 and updates it with the speaker notes instance defined by theuser. The various links, bundle link 110 (between the slide presentationcomponent 102 and the bundle of speaker notes files 106), file link 112(between the slide presentation component 102 and the speaker notes file104) and slide-by-slide link 114 (each link between the slides of theslide presentation 102 and each speaker notes instance of the speakernotes file 104) are created on step 218.

Next, on step 220, the slide presentation is saved. On step 222, if theuser wants to create a new slide, the process loops back to step 204,else the process ends.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the main steps to modify a speaker notesinstance in a slide presentation as defined by the present invention aredescribed.

The process starts on step 302 with the editing of a slide presentationand the editing of one specific slide among the plurality of slides ofthe presentation on step 304. Again, while it is not deeply described,it is to be appreciated that the edition may be performed using commonslide presentation programs as previously mentioned.

Step 306 allows the user to select a create/modify function using thedefault speaker notes interface provided by the slide presentationproduct in use.

Step 308 checks whether the speaker notes instance selected by the useris internal or external to the current slide presentation. If thespeaker notes instance is internal, then it is updated with theappropriate modifications (step 310) and saved into the slidepresentation as part of the slide presentation menu on step 320.

If the speaker notes instance is not internal, the process goes to step312.

Step 312 checks if the speaker notes instance is the first externalinstance (the slide presentation file 102 was defined previously withoutspeaker notes). If Yes, the process creates on step 314 a speaker notesfile bundle in a computer system repository and then on step 316 createsa speaker notes file 104 and stores it with the speaker notes filedefined by the user. All links, bundle link 110, file link 112 andslide-by-slide link 114 are created on step 317.

If the user is not creating a first speaker notes instance on step 312(branch No), the process updates the existing external speaker notesfile on step 318 with the modifications defined by the user and thenupdates a slide-by-slide link 114 on step 319.

Next, on step 320, the updated slide presentation is saved with the newspeaker notes instance. If on step 322 the user wants to update a newslide (branch Yes), the process loops back to step 304 otherwise (branchNo) the process ends.

Referring now to FIG. 4, the main steps to use the speaker notes manager108 to link a slide presentation file to a speaker notes file as definedby the present invention are described.

The process starts on step 402, with the selection of a slidepresentation. The user selects the appropriate slide presentationpreferably through a speaker notes manager graphical user interface asit is for example illustrated on FIG. 5.

Step 404 checks if the selected slide presentation is already associatedwith an internal set of speaker notes. If it is not the case (branchNo), which means that the slide presentation is associated with anexternal set of speaker notes, then the user is able to select anotherspeaker notes file 104-i on step 414 (in the bundle of the speaker noteslinked to the slide presentation 102), and on next step 416 the previousfile link 112 is deleted and a new file link 112 is created. During thesame step, the existing slide-by-slide links 114 are replaced by newones, based on the new speaker notes file 104-i selected. The processthen ends.

Back to step 404, if the slide presentation is associated with aninternal set of speaker notes files (branch Yes), the process allows theuser (on step 406) either to keep this configuration (branch No) and theprocess ends, or to create a set of speaker notes file in a computersystem repository (step 408). Next, a speaker notes file based on theinternal existing speaker notes is created and saved in step 410. Onstep 412, all links, bundle link 110 (between slide presentation 102 andthe bundle of speaker notes files 106), file link 112 (between slidepresentation 102 and speaker notes file 104) and slide-by-slide 114(each link between the slides from slide presentation 102 to eachspeaker notes instance of speaker notes file 104) are created. Then, theprocess ends.

FIG. 5 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the speaker notes managermain window 500. This window is displayed in response to a speaker notesmanager start action. The window includes a slide presentation area 502to display a list of the slide presentation files available for the usereither locally or on a remote linked computer. The user may select oneslide presentation 516 in this selection list 502.

The main window also includes a speaker notes area 504 listing all thespeaker notes files available to be linked to the presentation selectedinto the presentation list 502. The speaker notes file selected 518 inthe speaker notes list 504 is the one linked to the selectedpresentation 516.

The main window 500 also includes several push buttons. A Link pushbutton 508 allows the user to create the previously described links.

A Cancel push button 510 allows to cancel all actions while maintainingthe existing links that have been defined before the speaker notesmanager start.

The main window may also include a Help push button 512 to start a helpprocess for the speaker notes manager.

If the user selects a slide presentation 516 in the presentationselection list 502 that has embedded speaker notes and then clicks onpush button 514 “Create Speaker Notes,” the process creates the speakernotes file bundle in the computer system repository, then creates anexternal speaker notes file and updates it with the speaker notesdefined by the user. All links, bundle link 110, file link 112 andslide-by-slide link 114 are then created as described in FIG. 4, and thespeaker notes file 518 is added to the speaker notes list 504 andhighlighted.

If the user selects a slide presentation 516 in the presentationselection list 502 and clicks on a push button “Save W/Speaker Notes”520, a slide presentation 516 is saved without any speaker notesembedded or the existing bundle link 110 is moved to an empty speakernotes file.

Referring now to FIG. 6, the main steps to save a slide presentationwithout speaker notes file associated are described. The process startson step 602, with the user selecting a slide presentation through thespeaker notes manager main window 500 and clicking on the “SaveW/Speaker Notes” button 520, as previously described with reference toFIG. 5.

Step 604 checks if the slide presentation is already associated with aninternal set of speaker notes. If it is not the case (branch No), theprocess allows to select on step 616 an empty speaker notes fileincluded in the external set of speaker notes files or to create a newempty one if it does not exist previously. On step 618, the file link112 and the slide-by-slide links 114 are updated by first deleting thepreviously defined ones and creating new ones. Then the process ends.

Back to step 604, if the slide presentation is not associated with anexternal set of speaker notes (branch Yes), the process allows the user(on step 606) either to keep the internal configuration (branch No) orto create a bundle of speaker notes files in a computer systemrepository (branch Yes).

If the user wants to keep the internal speaker notes files, the processon step 608 deletes automatically all speaker notes files from thepresentation file 102, and the process ends.

If the user chooses to change the internal speaker notes files, theprocess allows to create a bundle of speaker notes file in a computersystem repository (step 610).

On next step 612, an empty speaker notes file is created and all speakernotes files are automatically deleted from the presentation File 102.

Then on step 614, all links, bundle link 110 (between slide presentation102 and the bundle of speaker notes files 106), file link 112 (betweenslide presentation 102 and the speaker notes file 104) andslide-by-slide link 114 (each link between the slides of slidepresentation 102 and each empty speaker notes instance from speakernotes file 104) are created. And the process ends.

Finally, it is to be appreciated that the present invention offers aneasy and efficient solution to have a plurality of speaker notes fileslinked to a single slide presentation.

1. In a computer implemented slide presentation product, a system forcreating a plurality of speaker notes files to be used in support of aslide presentation, comprising: means for creating a first speaker notesfile including a first plurality of speaker notes instances to be usedeach respectfully in support of one slide among a plurality of slides ofthe slide presentation; means for creating a second speaker notes fileincluding a second plurality of speaker notes instances to be used eachrespectfully in support of one slide among the plurality of slides ofthe slide presentation, wherein the first and second speaker notes filesare grouped in a speaker notes component; and means for creating linksbetween the slide presentation and the first or second speaker notesfile to allow a respective first or second speaker notes instance to beused in support of the one slide; wherein the links comprise a bundlelink between the slide presentation and the speaker notes component, afile link between the slide presentation and a selected one of the firstor second speaker notes files; and a plurality of slide-by-slide linksbetween each of the plurality of slides of the slide presentation and arespective speaker notes instance in the selected speaker notes file. 2.The system of claim 1 wherein the means for creating the second speakernotes file further comprises means for modifying the second speakernotes file.
 3. The system of claim 1 wherein the means for creating thesecond speaker notes file further comprises means for creating an emptyspeaker notes file.
 4. The system of claim 1 further comprising storingmeans for storing the second speaker notes file, and wherein the meansfor creating links further comprises means for creating a link betweenthe storing means and the slide presentation.
 5. The system of claim 1further comprising a computer display and Graphical User Interface meansfor emulating the slide presentation product.
 6. The system of claim 5wherein the Graphical User Interface means comprises a dedicated createpush button for creating the second speaker notes file.
 7. The system ofclaim 5 wherein the Graphical User Interface means comprises a dedicatedlink push button for creating links between the slide presentation andthe second speaker notes file.
 8. The system of claim 5 wherein theGraphical User Interface means comprises a dedicated save push buttonfor storing the second speaker notes file.
 9. The system of claim 1wherein the means for creating a first speaker notes file, the means forcreating a second speaker notes file and the means for creating linksare computer readable program means executable by a computer machine.10. A program storage device readable by a computer machine, tangiblyembodying the computer readable program means of claim
 9. 11. A systemfor managing speaker notes files of a slide presentation programcomprising: (a) a computer having a slide presentation program executingthereon; (b) a slide presentation created with the slide presentationprogram, the slide presentation comprising at least one slide and aspeaker notes instance created under control of the slide presentationprogram and to be used in support of the at least one slide; and (c)computer readable program means executable by the computer forperforming actions, including: (i) creating speaker notes files, eachspeaker notes file including at least one speaker notes instance to beused in support of the at least one slide, wherein the speaker notesfiles are grouped in a speaker notes component; and (ii) linking the atleast one speaker notes instance of each file to the at least one slidewherein the linking comprises a bundle link between the slidepresentation and the speaker notes component, a file link between theslide presentation and a selected one of the speaker notes files; and atleast one slide-by-slide link between each of the at least one slide ofthe slide presentation and a respective speaker notes instance in theselected speaker notes file.
 12. The system of claim 11 wherein thecomputer readable program means further perform storing or deleting ofspeaker notes files.
 13. The system of claim 12 wherein the computerreadable program means is embodied on a program storage device readableby a computer machine.